• 4
• Beautiful Presentation, Average Food

The official name of this restaurant is Wen Hwa Asian Fusion Cuisine. It's located in an artsy district of downtown Winston-Salem, in walking distance of the Marriott. I'm not sure what the fusion is, unless it's the fusion of soy-based meat analogs with Chinese food. As far as I could tell, most items on the menu are Chinese-type dishes. Anyway, we were greeted warmly by owner Connie, who told us that she is vegan. The place is beautiful, with lots of black and red. The menu is quite unique: printed on a rolled up fabric scroll that is inside a hollow, dried bamboo stalk. The menu posted on the restaurant's website does not show all the vegetarian dishes, though you'll find the very unusual vegetarian sea bass and vegetarian salmon listed under Special Entrees. What's nice is that any dish on the menu can be made vegan; and they offer vegan chicken or pork in addition to tofu. I wanted to try the "pork," but it was unavailable. We started with a great-tasting appetizer of steamed vegetable dumplings. I was so glad that they arrived in a covered metal serving dish, so they stayed warm. For my entree, I got a sizzling tofu and vegetable dish, but with the vegan chicken replacing the tofu. Alas, the vegan chicken was thin reddish slices and tasted more like ham. And the overriding taste of the dish was SALT: It was as if regular soy sauce had been poured over the food rather than any sort of special sauce. My partner had the same experience with her dish. That was a big disappointment. Also, I was quite surprised that Wen Hwa does not offer brown rice. I would try this place again, but I'd be more careful in my entree selection... I give Wen Hwa a "very good" rating because of the atmosphere and because of the extra effort to cater to vegans/vegetarians.